The present invention generally relates to cathode sputtering systems. More specifically, the invention relates to a cathode sputtering system for coating substrates in a vacuum chamber within which is accommodated a rotating substrate carrier, the system including at least one cathode station, a loading station, and an unloading station.
The coating of substrates, for example, of compact disks (CDs) is known in vacuum process technology, particularly in thin-film technology. Compact disks are a modern storage medium for digital information. In a sputtering process, imprinted plastic disks are coated with a layer, for example, an aluminum layer having a thickness of less than one ten-thousandths of a millimeter.
The sputtering-coating systems employed for this purpose include annularly constructed process chambers. Robots load and unload the systems via sluices in clean rooms. Substrate carriers convey the substrates through the annular process chambers. High-power sputtering cathodes, usually constructed as magnetrons, effect the sputtering.
Such a system is disclosed in a brochure numbered 12710.01 and produced by Leybold-Heraeus GmbH. This known cathode sputtering system provides single-sided coating of a laser-reflecting aluminum layer. The system includes an annular, horizontally arranged, vacuum chamber with loading and unloading stations, a high-power sputtering cathode, a conveyor ring comprising a disk receptacle, and dynamic sluices for isolating the coating chamber from the loading and unloading station.
The disk receptacle is employed to convey the substrates from the loading and unloading station to the cathode station and back. The processing, however, is extremely involved and expensive.